tihtavy  of t:he  t:heolo0ical  ^eminarjp 

PRINCETON   .   NEW  JERSEY 

PRESENTED  BY 

A.    G.    Cameron,  Ph.D. 


^^;© 


/ 


LIFE     B  Y^F  A^  I  T  H 


7.^ 


/  . 


A  SEEMO 


PREACHED    BEFORE    THE    SYNOD    OF    NEW-JERSEY, 


OPENING    OF    ITS    SESSIONS, 


RAHWAY,    NEW-JERSEY, 


Tuesday  Evening,  October  21st,  1862. 


BY  ALEXAKDEE   T/M'GILL,  D.D., 

OF  PRINCETON,  SEW-JERSET. 


l5 


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PXTBLISHED    BT    HEQTJEST    OP    THE    SYNOD. 


PUBLISHED    IN     THE     NATIONAL    PREACHER    FOR    DECEMBER, 

BY  W.   H.   BIDWELL,  5  BEEKMAN  ST. 

1862. 


»^. 


LIFE      BY      FAITH. 

A  SERMO:t^ 

PREACHED     BEFORE     THE     SYNOD     OF    NEW-JERSEY, 

BY    KEY.   ALEXANDEE    T.    M'GILL,  DD. 


'     "  The  just  shall  live  by  his  faith." — Habakkuk  2  :  4. 

This  was  a  favorite  text  with  the  most  gifted  and  successful 
preacher  that  Jesus  Christ  ever  commissioned — Paul  the  Apostle. 
Three  of  his  comments  upon  it  have  been  recognized  as  the  word 
of  God  itself,  being  recorded  by  the  pen  of  his  Spirit :  one  to  the 
Eomans,  another  to  the  Galatians,  a  third  to  the  Hebrews.  To 
the  Romans  he  preaches  it,  when  the  prospect  of  shame  and  per- 
secution among  them  for  the  cross  of  Christ  calls  forth  a  declara- 
tion of  Christian  courage:  "I  am  not  ashamed  of  the  Gospel  of 
Christ ;  for  it  is  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation  to  every  one 
that  believeth  ;  to  the  Jew  first,  and  also  to  the  Greek.  For 
therein  is  the  righteousness  of  God  revealed  from  faith  to  faith  ; 
as  it  is  written,  the  just  shall  live  by  faith."  To  the  Galatians  he 
preaches  it  as  part  of  his  conclusive  argument  for  the  doctrine  of 
justification  by  faith  :  "  But  that  no  man  is  justified  by  the  law  in 
the  sight  of  God,  it  is  evident ;  for  the  just  shall  live  by  faith." 
To  the  Hebrews  he  preaches  it,  when  he  exhorts  them  to  patience 
and  continuance  through  a  great  fight  of  affiictions :  "  For  yet  a 
little  while,  and  he  that  shall  come  will  come  and  will  not  tarry. 
Now  the  just  shall  live  by  faith  ;  but  if  any  man  draw  back",  my 
soul  shall  have  no  pleasure  in  him."  Thus  you  see,  how  wide  a 
scope  we  are  warranted  to  take  with  this  text,  by  the  example  of 
divine  interpretation  itself. 

In  the  connection  before  us,  the  original  place  of  its  occurrence 


4  LIFE   BY   FAITH. 

in  Scripture,  we  discern  a  shade  of  meaning  still  different  from 
any  instance  of  its  quotation  in  the  Bible ;  and  that  is,  in  view  of 
approaching  trials  of  an  extraordinary  kind,  we  should  live  m  a 
peculiar  and  eminent  degree  by  the  exercise  of  faith.  A  frightful 
vision  of  national  calamity,  an  impending  invasion  of  the  Chal- 
deans, with  all  its  desolating  horrors,  filled  the  imagination  of  the 
prophet;  and  like  every  considerate  and  godly  man,  he  is  con- 
cerned to  know  what  are  his  own  sins  and  his  own  responsibili- 
ties; what  may  be  his  own  duty,  then  and  now,  in  the  midst  of 
that  trouble,  and  in  the  prospect  of  it:  verse  1st:  "I  will  stand 
upon  my  watch,  to  see  what  he  will  say  unto  me,  and  what  I  shall 
answer  when  I  am  reproved."  In  answer  from  the  Lord,  he  is 
directed,  first,  to  make  a  faithful  record  for  the  benefit  of  others. 
"  Write  the  vision,  and  make  it  plain  upon  tables,  that  he  may 
run  that  readeth  it."  Next,  to  have  patience  with  the  develop- 
ments of  Providence  concerning  the  trouble  and  the  deliverance 
— "  though  it  tarry,  wait  for  it,  etc.,"  (verse  3.)  Then  it  is  declared 
that  humility  is  the  only  upright  attitude  of  soul,  in  such  circum- 
stances ;  and  contrasted  with  the  proud  impatience  which  can  not 
wait  for  God,  in  his  appointed  time,  is  the  meek  reliance  of  the 
just  man  —  "but  the  just  shall  live  by  his  faith."  Faith,  as  the 
Apostle  Paul  would  gloss  it,  which  embraces  the  true  Messiah  and 
his  righteousness,  as  the  ark  of  safety  through  all  extremities  of 
trial  and  danger  —  faith,  which  holds  with  invulnerable  hand  the 
promises  of  Almighty  Grod,  that  are  all  yea  and  amen  in  him  —  is 
the  secret  of  a  just  man's  perseverance  through  all  calamities,  and 
triumph  over  all  catastrophes. 

However  diversified  the  uses  of  the  text,  there  is  always  one 
subject — life  by  faith :  and  all  the  varieties  of  its  application  may 
be  grouped  with  sufficient  unity  in  this  two-fold  aspect  of  the  sub- 
ject: Life  by  faith  in  ordinary  circumstances,  and  life  by  faith  in 
circumstances  of  extraordinary  trial. 

I.  Ordinarily,  the  just  man  lives  by  faith.  First.  As  it  is  the 
first  act  of  that  new  spiritual  life,  which  the  Holy  Ghost  produces 
in  the  soul.  It  is  that  coming  to  Christ  which  the  Scriptures 
make  anterior  to  every  other  gift  or  exercise  of  grace.  Repent- 
ance, in  the  widest  acceptation,  turning  unto  God,  includes  faith  as 
one  essential  element.  But  repentance,  in  the  restricted  sense,  of 
sorrow  for  sin,  resolution,  and  amendment,  follows  the  eye,  the 


LIFE   BY   FAITH.  D 

step,  the  hand  of  faith.  "  Thej  shall  look  on  me  whom  they  have 
pierced,  and  mourn."  The  repentance  which  precedes  true  faith 
is  but  legal,  but  the  agitations  of  enmity  in  bonds,  throes,  and 
convulsions,  which,  but  for  the  preventing  grace  of  God,  would 
naturally  cry  out,  at  length :  "  Torment  me  not,  thou  Son  of  David." 
Grod  is  pleased  with  true  repentance,  as  the  whole  tenor  of  his 
word  evinces.  But  "  without  faith  it  is  impossible  to  please  him." 
Therefore,  if  either  of  these  graces  may  be  said  to  precede  the 
other  in  the  order  of  nature,  and  the  one  is  simply  indispensable, 
and  the  other  instantly  pleasing,  the  former  is  foremost  in  the 
movement  of  renovated  life.  We  persuade  the  sinner  to  repent- 
ance by  the  word  of  God,  as  it  contains  the  law  and  the  Gospel ; 
enlightening  his  darkness,  alarming  his  fears,  exciting  his  soul 
with  alternate  threatening  and  promise,  to  adventure  on  the  mercy 
and  truth  of  Jesus.  But  all  this  implies,  of  course,  that  he  be- 
lieves the  word.  And  thus  from  many  a  point  of  view,  it  appears 
that  the  first  living  act  of  a  determination  to  be  saved  is  that  of 
believing. 

Second.  "We  live  by  faith,  as  it  apprehends  the  plea  by  which  the 
condemnation  of  death  is  set  aside,  or  as  it  is  a  justifying  instru- 
ment. We  are  said  to  live  by  that  instrumentality  which  delivers 
us  and  shields  us  from  the  operation  of  death.  "  If  by  one  man's 
offense  death  reigned  by  one,  much  more  they  which  receive 
abundance  of  grace,  and  the  gift  of  righteousness  shall  reign  in 
life  by  one  Jesus  Christ."  The  hand  therefore  which  receives  this 
gift  of  righteousness  that  comes  on  us  for  justification  unto  life  is 
the  implement  by  which  a  just  man  lives.  And  hence  the  best 
'reason  for  his  denoinination  "just" — one  whom  God  has  justified 
on  account  of  the  righteousness  of  Christ,  imputed  and  made  just 
by  the  cleansing  efiicacy  of  atoning  blood,  sprinkled  on  his  con- 
science by  the  Holy  Ghost,  with  that  abundance  of  grace  com- 
municated, which  is  comprehended  in  the  phrase  "eternal  life." 
Along  with  the  ground  of  justification,  is  all  the  grace  of  sanctifi- 
cation  received  by  the  same  hand  of  faith,  in  both  of  which  we  are 
said  to  live  by  faith,  and  not  upon  it.  This,  in  the  economy  of 
spiritual  life,  would  be  absurd,  as  for  the  body,  in  natural  life,  to 
be  subsisted  on  the  hand,  instead  of  the  aliment  appropriated  by 
that  member  as  an  instrument. 

Third.  We  live  by  faith,  as  it  unites  the  soul  in  mystical  union 


6  LIFE   BY  FAITH. 

with  the  Head,  in  whom  there  is  all  the  fullness  of  life —  "Christ, 
who  is  our  life."  The  articulated  member  of  a  glorious  body,  the 
engrafted  branch  of  a  living  olive  or  vine,  the  cemented  stone  of  a 
building,  fitly  framed  and  well  compacted — under  many  a  simili- 
tude of  striking  analogy,  and  yet  inadequate  expression,  the  just 
man  is  identified  with  the  Source  of  all  life  by  the  faith  which  ap- 
prehends a  justifiying  righteousness.  No  matter  where  we  place 
the  mystery  of  this  incorporation  as  to  the  order  of  time,  there  is 
conscious  vitality  and  true  manifestation  only  in  the  actual  exer- 
cise of  faith. 

Fourth.  We  live  by  faith,  as  it  is  in  the  range  of  its  appropriation 
the  highest  and  best  condition  of  life.  It  furnishes  the  soul  with 
all  that  makes  life  valuable  and  happy.  The  promises  on  which 
it  feeds  are  a  continual  feast.  There  is  a  substance  given  by  it  to 
every  thing  we  hope  for.  There  is  a  realization  in  its  credit  as  it 
looks  to  the  veracity,  and  faithfulness,  and  wisdom,  and  power  of 
God  which  makes  any  one,  in  any  circumstances,  that  the  world 
would  think  no  life  at  all,  exclaim  with  the  Apostle:  "I  am  full 
— I  have  all  and  abound."  Life  is  never  stagnant,  never  destitute, 
when  we  have  a  future  to  live  for.  Even  the  days  of  our  vanity 
in  youth  are  counted  the  happiest  days  of  lifetime,  because  they 
are  both  dependent  and  expectant;  (depending,  without  corrosive 
care,  on  a  father's  provision,  and  expecting  a  greater  compass  of 
joy  in  the  years  of  manly  fruition.  So,  and  much  more,  faith 
makes  life  a  perpetual  youth  of  joyous  recumbency  on  a  Father's 
care  of  us  and  plans  for  us,  and  buoyant  forecast  of  "  an  inherit- 
ance incorruptible,  undefiled,  which  passeth  not  away,  reserved  in 
heaven  for  us." 

Fifth.  We  live  by  faith,  as  it  is  a  principle  essentially  indicative 
of  life,  active,  operative,  and  fruitful.  It  works.  "Faith,  without 
works,  is  dead."  Apprehending  for  its  own,  such  a  robe  as  the 
imputed  righteousness  of  Christ,  it  will  ever  appear  "  exalted"  in 
it,  and  adorned  with  it,  "  even  as  a  bridegroom  decketh  himself  with 
ornaments,  and  as  a  bride  adorneth  herself  with  jewels,"  It  must 
combine  in  the  tissue  of  its  own  life  all  the  vitalities  and  activities 
to  which  the  Scriptures  any  where  attribute  our  salvation.  Some- 
times this  will  be  ascribed  to  benevolence:  "Come  ye  blessed  of 
my  Father,  inherit  the  kingdom  prepared  for  you,  for  I  was  an 
hungered  and  ye  gave  me,  etc."     Sometimes  to  hope :  "  We  are 


LIFE  BY  FAITH.  7 

saved  by  hope."  And  sometimes  to  believing :  "He  that  believeth 
shall  be  saved."  Now,  to  which  of  these  three  does  our  salvation 
really  belong  —  love,  or  hope,  or  faith  ?  It  is  evident,  not  to  one 
of  them  alone,  but  to  all  of  them  together.  Faith  is  first,  indeed, 
but  it  is  the  train  which  fills  the  temple  ■ — the  fruits  of  the  Spirit 
in  blended  beauty,  which  make  us  "  all  glorious  within,  and  ac- 
cepted in  the  Beloved."  We  must  ever  try  ourselves  by  this 
touchstone  of  genuine  life.  There  is  far  less  danger  in  that  one- 
sided piety,  which  works  for  salvation  with  fear  and  trembling, 
than  that  other  one-sided  piety  which  would  believe  it  out,  with 
barrenness  of  speculation  in  the  soul ;  attempting  eternal  life  at 
our  ease,  by  the  magic  of  resorting  with  sound  but  heartless 
thought  to  the  grace  of  a  living  Saviour.  How  many  perish  be- 
hind the  batteries  they  build,  to  level  human  merit  in  the  dust ! 
How  many,  on  the  credit  of  their  faith,  indulge  once  more  in  sin 
— a  little  one — extenuated  by  every  circumstance,  and  atoned  for 
at  any  rate  by  the  secret  salvo,  that  they  have  a  ready  recourse  at 
any  time  to  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ,  which  cleanseth  from  all 
sin,  thus  magnifying  the  virtue  of  his  cross,  and  the  riches  of  his 
grace,  only  to  make  the  precious  fountain  of  the  Saviour's  blood  a 
laver  of  convenience  for  the  filthy  washing  of  lust  and  sloth ! 
Show  us  your  faith  by  your  works,  or  you  are  dead  and  perishing. 

II.  Such  being  the  constitution  and  economy  of  a  just  man's 
faith  in  ordinary  circumstances,  let  us  now  see  how  it  survives  in 
circumstances  of  extraordinary  trial. 

First.  The  first  of  these  to  be  considered  is,  that  which  oppressed 
the  mind  of  the  prophet,  when  this  text  was  uttered — calamity; 
•  that  which  exceeds  the  bounds  of  ordinary  affliction.  The  word 
of  the  Lord,  by  the  mouth  of  Ezekiel,  defines  it  as  "  a  sword  —  a 
sword  sharpened  and  also  furbished ;  it  is  sharpened  to  make  a 
sore  slaughter,  it  is  furbished  that  it  may  glitter ;  terrors  by  rea- 
son of  the  sword  shall  be  upon  my  people ;  smite,  therefore,  upon 
thy  thigh.  Because  it  is  a  trial,  and  what  if  the  sword  contemn 
even  the  rod  ?" — the  rod  being  the  emblem  of  ordinary  affliction. 
It  is  a  time  when  the  righteous  and  the  wicked  are  involved  in  a 
common  tribulation ;  when  the  scourge  slayeth  suddenly,  and  He 
who  dispenses  all  events  will  "  laugh  at  the  trial  of  the  innocent" 
— rejoicing  in  the  power  of  his  own  arm  to  chastise  a  sinful  nation. 


8  LIFE  BY   FAITH. 

and  the  faith  of  his  own  followers  to  outlast  the  sorest  vials  of  his 
fury. 

War  and  famine,  pestilence  and  earthquake,  early  conspired  to 
impeach  the  objective  faith  of  Christianity,  and  occasioned,  on  the 
part  of  its  defenses,  the  best  achievements  of  literature  among 
the  Fathers.  But  the  refutation  of  pagan  infidelity  has  never 
sufficed  to  deliver  the  grace  of  faith  from  all  confusion  and  per- 
plexity, when  God  arises  to  "  shake  terribly  the  earth,  and  bathe 
his  sword  in  heaven."  It  is  still  hard  to  explain  why  one  event 
happeneth  to  all,  when  a  particular  providence  has  in  charge  the 
safety  of  God's  own  children  ;  harder  to  explain  why  the  increase 
of  his  seed,  as  pillars  of  the  land  and  salt  of  the  earth,  does  not 
preserve  its  foundations  from  being  destroyed ;  and,  upon  the 
other  hand,  why  the  ship  of  the  commonweal  is  actually  driven 
with  the  tempest,  and  dashed  by  the  billows,  for  the  sake  of 
Christians  themselves,  that,  like  Jonah,  may  be  asleep  in  their 
unfaithful  departure  from  God. 

And  there  was  never,  since  the  world  began,  a  problem  for  our 
faith  to  solve,  so  hard  as  that  which  tries  American  believers  at 
this  time.  We  trusted  that  this  model  and  mighty  republic  had 
been  it,  which  should  have  redeemed»,the  world  from  the  curse  of 
despotic  rule,  and  the  turbulence  of  incessant  revolution.  We 
trusted  that  a  mission  of  millennial  glory  had  been  the  reserve  for 
which  the  bright  evangelization  of  this  continent  was  long  prepar- 
ing, and  that  the  tie  of  the  nation's  heart  with  British  nationality,  in 
its  aims  of  enlightened  faith  and  freedom  for  the  whole  race,  which 
had  just  been  restored,  was  the  very  league  that  God's  anointed 
would  ordain  to  guarantee  the  world's  salvation.  But,  alas !  how 
suddenly  and  horridly  has  all  this  hope  and  trust  been  dashed  to 
pieces  1  The  most  peaceful  realm  beneath  the  sun  has  become  al- 
ready the  most  bloody  battle-ground  on  the  face  of  the  earth. 
And  Edomitisli  envy,  aristocracy,  and  greed,  all  at  once  forget  the 
league  they  courted,  and  cry  out  against  the  hated  republic :  "  Eaze 
it,  raze  it,  even  to  the  foundation  thereof."  Hostile  camps,  which 
frown  defiance  at  each  other  with  sucli  a  bitter  hate,  that  scarcely 
a  sentinel  can  live  between  them,  are  hostile  prayer-meetings  also  ; 
and  the  Lord  of  Hosts  himself  is  held  by  a  wrestling  faith,  which 
seems  strong  enough  on  each  side  to  remove  mountains.     Faith 


LIFE  BY   FAITH.  9 

against  faith  fights,  as  if  even  Christ  were  divided,  and  the  ele- 
ments of  this  fratricidal  strife  would  go  up  to  mingle  in  the  censer 
which  burns  in  the  most  holy  place  of  the  highest  heavens. 

How  can  faith  live  through  this  deadly  duel?  How  escape  the 
ruin  of  a  house  divided  against  itself?  Or  persevere,  when  all  the 
promises  on  which  it  lives  and  feeds  are  made  themselves  a  com- 
mon object  of  rapine  and  plunder  ? 

Hard  as  the  problem  may  be  to  reason,  there  is  no  great  diffi- 
culty to  the  exercise  of  faith  ;  it  never  claims  that  prayer  must  be 
answered  in  the  very  form,  and  at  the  very  time,  the  anguish  of 
the  heart  may  dictate,  and  feels  that  prayer  is  well  requited,  when 
faith  alone  is  strengthened,  and  some  other  boon  of  visible  or  in- 
visible mercy  is  given,  as  much  better  for  our  best  welfare,  as 
God's  wisdom  is  greater  than  ours.  Blind  and  bewildered  as  we 
are,  in  all  the  calculations  of  sense,  there  is  chart  enough  in  the 
volume  of  inspired  and  uninspired  history,  to  guide  us  in  believ- 
ing. "  Shall  I  go  up  again  to  battle  against  the  children  of  Ben- 
jamin my  brother?"  said  the  weeping  multitude  of  the  children 
of  Israel,  when  they  asked  counsel  of  the  Lord,  after  having  lost 
twenty-two  thousand  men  before  the  gates  of  Gibeah,  notwith- 
standing all  their  own  overwhelming  advantages.  "  And  the 
Lord  said,  Go  up  against  him."  Faith  obeyed ;  and  was  again  de- 
feated, with  the  loss  of  eighteen  thousand  men,  who  all  drew  the 
sword.  Again  they  came  to  the  oracle  of  God,  with  weeping  and 
fasting,  burnt  offering  and  peace  offering,  and  said  :  "  Shall  I  yet 
go  out  to  battle  against  the  children  of  Benjamin  my  brother,  or 
shall  I  cease  ?"  "  And  the  Lord  said.  Go  up,  for  to-morrow  I  will 
deliver  them  into  thy  hand." 

Such  was  the  agony  of  faith  in  that  great  civil  war,  which  deso- 
lated the  Hebrew  commonwealth  in  the  morning  of  its  greatness. 
Such  the  piety  and  persistency  of  its  life,  until  a  peace  was  con- 
quered by  the  extermination,  almost,  of  one  tribe  in  Israel :  yet 
the  beauties  of  Old  Testament  religion  follow  that  war  with  a 
brighter  effulgence  than  ever ;  as  the  spirit  of  inspiration  has^iven 
its  pages  to  our  faith.  We  have  Euth,  and  Samuel,  and  David,  in 
quick  succession,  we  have  the  magnanimity  of  all  the  tribes,  effac- 
ing the  rancor  of  Benjamin,  by  taking  the  first  of  their  kings  from 
this  diminished  tribe ;  and  excepting  the  sin  of  asking  for  a  king  at 
all,  we  have  all  the  lustre  of  that  theocratic  empire  in  the  sequel  ; 


10  LIFE   BY  FAITH. 

its  consolidation,  its  renown,  its  greatest  benefit  and  blessing  to 
the  nations  of  the  earth. 

History  hardly  affords  us  another  parallel  so  near  to  our  condi- 
tion ;  unless  it  was  when  the  Puritans  under  Cromwell,  and  the 
Presbyterians  of  Scotland  were  marshaled  against  each  other,  and 
each  camp  was  like  a  Bethel,  for  praying  and  preaching.  Terrible 
tribulation  followed  that  quarrel,  at  the  restoration  of  Charles  the 
Second,  which  it  speedily  accomplished  ;  and  both  parties  were  pun- 
ished, until  the  whole  theater  of  their  unnatural  and  unseemly 
feud  became  a  threshing-floor,  on  which  almighty  wrath  seemed 
intent  on  crushing  liberty,  religion,  and  morals  in  a  common  de- 
struction. But  at  length  "  an  handful  of  corn,"  thrust  out  in  the 
extremities  of  persecuting  violence,  and  trampled  in  the  ground  by 
Claverhouse  and  his  dragoons,  came  up  to  "  shake  like  Lebanon," 
giving  to  Great  Britain  the  principles  of  her  best  revolution,  and 
to  America  the  seed  of  ours,  and  to  the  world  a  rich  inheritance  ot 
regulated  freedom. 

As  a  believer  in  Christ,  I  can  not  despair  of  my  country.  I  can 
not  see  why  we  should  be  slow  of  heart  to  believe  that  this  baleful 
distress  which  fills  us  with  so  much  grief  and  dismay,  is  only  an- 
other agony  upon  the  threshing-floor,  in  which  pestilent  theories  of 
civil  government  shall  be  crushed  out  forever,  and  pestilent  evils 
of  social  and  domestic  life  shall  be  uprooted  safely,  or  girdled  till 
they  die ;  and  a  new  growth,  of  deeper  root,  and  loftier  hight,  and 
wider  shade,  shall  be  the  future  of  our  chastened  life  as  a  nation. 

However  this  may  be,  faith  has  enough  on  hand,  without  a 
moment  for  speculation,  to  engage  the  intense  activity  of  this  hea- 
venly grace.  Like  Noah,  when  warned  of  God  and  moved  with 
fear,  the  just  man  will  be  employed  in  preparing  an  ark  for  the 
saving  of  himself  and  his  house.  Instead  of  returning  to  the 
world  at  each  interval  of  relief  and  hope,  with  eager  and  animated 
chase  of  its  gains  or  its  honors,  he  will  by  all  means  make  sure  of 
the  "  covenant,"  and  hide  himself  only  there,  and  take  his  children 
there,  and  see  that  it  is  repaired  and  finished  as  God  has  directed. 
To  tfiis  ark  he  will  gather  all  the  institutions  of  God,  which  are 
the  only  hope  of  our  land.  He  will  no  more  allow  the  cause  of 
Missions  at  home  or  abroad,  the  cause  of  Education,  or  that  of  a 
sanctifying  Literature  to  perish,  or  be  imperiled  in  this  "  over- 
flowing scourge,"  than  Noah  would  have  left  one  or  all  of  his  sons  to 


LIFE   BY   FAITH.  11 

perish  with  the  world  of  the  ungodly.  He  will  search  out  his  own 
sins,  and  those  of  his  house,  and  those  of  his  church,  that  more 
than  any  others,  endanger  the  nation  in  which  she  is  enabosoined ; 
and  provoke  the  Mediator  in  his  kingdom,  to  join  his  eyes  of  fire, 
with  the  ministers  of  destroying  providence,  to  scourge  the  Church 
and  the  world  together.  Lukewarmness,  the  loathsome  sin  of 
Laodicea;  contentment  with  outward  order  and  immunity  from 
scandal,  the  sin  of  Sardis;  want  of  love  among  ourselves,  and  love 
of  the  world,  strong  enough  to  efface  the  distinction  of  God's  own 
people,  and  to  invade  even  the  pulpit  with  its  maxims  an4  policy — 
these  the  man  of  faith  will  mortify,  as  the  tempest  of  judgment 
approaches. 

Second.  Another  trial  is  that  of  reproach  for  the  faithful  mainten- 
ance of  truth  and  holiness.  This  is  one,  however,  which  is  ordi- 
nary, instead  of  extraordinary,  just  as  often  as  the  spirit  of  heroic 
consecration  dares  to  rise  above  the  level  of  an  average  conform- 
ity, or  pass  beyond  the  circle  of  common  expedients,  in  aggression 
upon  darkness  and  sin  ;  or  stand  like  "  a  brazen  wall"  and  "  a  de- 
fensed  city,"  against  the  rage  of  prejudice  and  passion  in  times  of 
excitement.  Times  like  the  present  are  full  of  peril  to  any  form 
of  uncompromising  Christianity.  Uuregenerated  nature,  always, 
when  stirred  to  its  lowest  depths  by  the  pressure  of  public  woe, 
rages  against  the  barriers  of  a  pure  faith ;  in  proportion  as  it  stands 
up  to  witness  for  God,  when  his  hand  is  stretched  out,  in  contro- 
versy with  men.  And  we,  of"  this  sect  which  is  everywhere  spo- 
ken against,"  may  look  for  obloquy  to  come  in  the  tumults  of  pub- 
lic disorder — for  the  bigot  and  the  latitudinarian,  the  skeptic  and 
the  fanatic,  the  voluptuary  and  the  demagogue,  to  say  to  each 
other,  "  a  confederacy"  —  as  often  as  the  standard  of  this  camp 
goes  forward  among  the  tribes  of  Israel. 

Faith,  in  such  a  trial  as  this,  probably  the  hardest  of  all,  to  the 
fortitude  of  its  heavenly  temper,  will  seek  above  all  things  to  ex- 
perience the  power,  sweetness,  and  consolation  of  every  thing  in 
our  profession,  for  which  we  are  denounced  or  derided ;  will  wake 
into  life  and  beauty  every  hated  feature  of  our  testimony,  and 
without  plan  or  apology,  concealment  or  accommodation,  fix  an 
eye  on  the  authority  of  Jesus,  and  his  example  ;  "  who  for  the  joy 
that  was  set  before  him  endured  the  cross  and  despised  the  shame." 
We  have  seen  already,  how  it  was  to  the  Hebrews,  when  they  were 


12  LIFE   BY  FAITH. 

''  a  gazing-stock,  both  by  reproaches  and  afflictions,"  that  the  great 
Apostle  administered  the  text,  where  he  tells  them,  they  "have 
need  of  patience,"  and  exhorts  them  :  "  Cast  not  away  therefore 
your  confidence,  which  hath  great  recompense  of  reward."  (He- 
brew 10.) 

Third.  Another  trial  is  the  return  of  infidelity — extraordinary,  in 
that  no  completeness  of  defeat  can  prevent  its  returning  invasion. 
It  is  the  only  thing  under  heaven  that  never  dies  out,  beneath  the 
light  of  demonstration  against  it — even  boasting  itself  as  "the 
ISTemesis  of  faith  ;"  and  being  born  of  night,  will  indeed  ever  seek  to 
reverse  the  day  with  its  shadow  ;  even  when  "  the  light  of  the  moon 
shall  be  as  the  light  of  the  sun,  and  the  light  of  the  sun  shall  be 
sevenfold  as  the  light  of  seven  days."  It  is  sure  to  watch  its  op- 
portunity, in  times  of  public  disorder,  when  religion  fails  to  sub- 
due the  passions  of  men,  and  providence  appears  to  disappoint  the 
faith  of  the  just;  in  order  to  unsettle  hope  and  confidence  in  God, 
because  his  ways  are  not  our  ways.  It  exchanges  persecution,  and 
ridicule,  and  learned  seclusion,  and  rhetorical  flourish,  and  philo- 
sophical doubt,  forms  which  have  all  in  turn  been  exhausted;  and 
now  becomes  Tractarian  to  the  masses,  courting  the  enthusiasm  of 
ignorance,  as  it  streams  through  the-  workshops,  the  camps,  and 
the  trains  of  foreign  immigration. 

We  may  have  to  meet  it  in  terrific  forms — true  as  it  is  to  noth- 
ing, but  the  venom  with  which  it  began  the  assault  on  "  this  Gali- 
lean." We  must  meet  it  in  these  new  forms  of  activity  and  ag- 
gression. Faith,  in  this  trial,  goes  on  with  her  march  of  intellect, 
her  work  of  education,  lifting  higher  its  standard,  and  keeping  her 
sons  in  the  van  of  all  human  learning,  and  at  the  same  time,  with 
equal  concern,  she  will  repair  that  old  redoubt  of  bluff  and  simple 
piety,  from  which  the  most  unlettered  of  men  may  exclaim,  "  One 
thing  I  know,  that  whereas  I  was  blind,  now  I  see"  —  and  the  most 
learned  repeat,  "Let  God  be  true  and  every  man  a  liar."  Child- 
like faith  is  a  giant,  more  than  a  giant;  it  has  a  sling  and  a  stone, 
before  which  every  giant  must  fall,  to  be  dispatched  by  his  own 
sword. 

Fourth.  Another  trial  is  apostasy — extraordinary,  because  it  has 
been  ordinary  so  long  and  so  immovably.  Like  infidelity,  it  is 
always  on  the  alert,  in  times  of  confusion  and  trouble,  when  the 
foundations  of  the  earth  are  out  of  course  ;  the  sort  of  times  in 


LIFE   BY   FAITH.  13 

which  it  began  to  erect  that  vast  incorporation,  which  for  many 
centuries  has  been  making  merchandise  of  the  souls  of  men.  Clos- 
eted with  civil  power  in  the  councils  of  the  nation,  and  speeding 
on  public  errands,  as  if  it  were  the  soul  of  patriotism  itself.  Popery 
is  the  same  political  religion  it  has  always  been,  and  in  nothing  so 
unchangeable  as  its  ambition  to  bestride  the  state.  It  has  always 
clambered  up  on  the  existing  temporal  power,  no  matter  on  what 
side  of  the  question  ;  the  first  to  chant  a  Te  Deum  in  Charleston 
when  Fort  Sumter  fell,  and  the  first  to  rally  the  masses  of  New- 
York  to  avenge  that  fall.  "  Popery  is  dead  at  heart  and  living  at 
the  extremities,"  says  a  great  writer  of  this  age.  It  is  living  in 
these  extremities,  with  power  and  policy  of  sufficient  portent  to 
make  us  keep  in  mind  the  martyr  declaration  of  Bishop  Latimer, 
whose  blood  was  spattered  on  its  fangs  :  "  Once  I  thought  that 
Popery  would  never  return  into  England  ;  but  now  I  find,  it  was 
not  faith,  but  fancy." 

Faith  sees  in  the  promises  of  God,  a  determinate  time,  when  this 
great  Babylon  will  sink,  as  a  mighty  millstone  in  the  sea  ;  and, 
without  the  help  of  curious  computations  on  the  one  hand,  or  po- 
litical combinations  on  the  other,  "  waits  for  it"  —  never  discour- 
aged, that  it  tarries  so  long;  and  never  secure  and  relaxed  when 
this  "Man  of  Sin"  appears  to  droop,  as  if  destined  to  perish  in  a 
gradual  decrepitude.  Rather,  the  just  man's  faith  will  wait  for 
the  overthrow  of  this  great  apostasy,  from  the  hight  of  that  pros- 
perity which  sits  a  queen,  and  "glorifies  herself  and  lives  deli- 
ciously"  —  with  instantaneous  and  astounding  interposition  of  Al- 
mighty God  —  "  her  plagues  shall  come  upon  her  in  one  day  —  for 
strong  is  the  Lord  God  thatjudgeth  her"  Till  then,  the  faith 
which  lives,  in  the  exercise  of  vigilance  that  never  sleeps,  and 
eSbrts  that  never  slacken,  will  cry  out  in  sympathy  with  "  souls 
beneath  the  altar"  on  high  —  "0  Lord  !  how  long?" 

Such  is  an  imperfect  view  of  true  faith,  in  its  habits  of  ordinary 
exercise,  and  in  situations  of  critical  and  extraordinary  trial.  How 
admirable  its  constitution !  How  rich  its  resources,  what  consola- 
tory evidence  does  it  afford  us,  that  this  life  of  faith  is  an  imper- 
ishable principle  ;  and  that  there  is  in  any  fainting  extremity  of  its 
nature,  a  quenchless  vitality,  which  may  be  called  on  to  revive 
and  "strengthen  the  things  that  remain  and  are  ready  to  die."  It 
is  first  in  order  ;  every  other  grace  in  the  soul  implies  the  prece- 


14:  LIFE   BY   FAITH. 

dence  of  this  faith,  and  must  be  lost  —  hope  herself  must  give  up 
the  sure  and  steadfast  anchor,  before  this  inner  and  ultimate  life  of 
faith  can  be  destroyed.  It  is  justifying;  and  stands  in  the  pres- 
ence of  God  on  the  ground  of  a  satisfaction,  so  infinite  in  value,  as 
to  guarantee  the  protection  of  that  very  justice  which  was  arrayed 
against  us.  Justice  herself  expires,  before  the  just  man's  faith  will 
die.  It  is  uniting  ;  and  lives  in  mystical  incorporation  with  Christ 
himself,  in  the  fullness  of  him  who  is  "alive  for  evermore  and  hath 
the  keys  of  hell  and  death."  Sooner  maty  the  keys  be  stolen  and 
pulsation  cease  from  the  hand  which  holds  them,  than  the  vital 
cord  between  that  glorious  Head  and  the  meanest  member,  to 
whom  he  gives  eternal  life,  can  be  dissevered.  It  is  realizing;  and 
so  diffuses  light  and  breath  to  all  other  sensibilities  of  human  life, 
that  a  visible  existence  will  go  out,  before  a  soul  of  life  like  this 
expires.  It  is  fruitful ;  and  "  herein  is  my  Father  glorified  that  ye 
bear  much  fruit."  Sooner  than  a  fruitful  faith  will  die,  God  would 
relinquish  his  glory.  All  its  ordinary  properties  prove,  it  is  death- 
less—  that  the  just  man  lives  by  faith,  and  lives  forever. 

And  amidst  calamities  the  most  dreadful,  it  rides  above  the 
waves  in  an  ark  of  safety.  Amidst  reproach  and  scorn  the  most 
bitter,  it  realizes  the  honor  which  C4»meth  from  God,  and  despises 
the  shame  which  cometh  from  man.  Amidst  infidelity  the  most 
virulent,  and  apostasy  the  most  signal  and  sear,  it  overcomes  by 
the  blood  of  the  Lamb  and  the  testimony  it  holds.  All  these  ex- 
treme hostilities  it  smiles  at  with  defiance ;  and  when  flesh  and 
heart  would  faint  and  fail,  finds  in  God  the  strength  of  our  hearts 
and  a  portion  forever. 

Have  you  such  a  faith,  my  brethren  ?  Not  in  conscious  com- 
petency now,  for  every  form  of  diversified  trial  and  firm  endur- 
ance—  for  as  your  day  is,  your  strength  shall  be  —  but  in  that 
"spirit  of  your  minds,"  which  takes  you  always  and  immediately 
to  Jesus  ?  It  is  time,  surely,  to  know  what  manner  of  spirit  we 
are  of — when  the  judgments  of  God  are  abroad  over  all  this  broad 
land.  Already  it  is  a  Bochim.  And  God  only  knows  how  soon 
every  house  may  be  mourning  a  first-born,  and  more  than  a  first- 
born. The  end  may  be  worse  than  the  beginning.  Famine,  pes- 
tilence, anarchy,  may  tread  upon  the  heels  of  war.  "Wicked  am- 
bition and  vile  corruption,  at  the  North,  may  bring  upon  us  fiery 
trials,  in  the  very  triumph  which  crushes  out  a  wicked  rebellion 


LIFE  BY   FAITH.  15 

and  a  vile  Confederacy  at  the  South.  And  if  none  of  these  things 
be  coming,  death  is  at  hand ;  the  Judge  is  at  the  door ;  unchangea- 
ble eternity  is  near.  Oh  !  let  us  see  to  it,  that  we  now  live  and 
stand  fast  in  the  Lord  ;  so  that  over  us  the  second  death  shall  have 
no  power.  "  Blessed  is  that  servant  whom  his  Lord  when  he  Com- 
eth shall  find  so  doing." 

Perishing  sinners,  will  not  you  beg  that  it  may  be  given  you, 
on  the  behalf  of  Christ,  to  believe  on  his  name  ?  Without  another 
moment's  delay,  will  you  not  plead  that  God  would  fulfill  in  you 
"  the  good  pleasure  of  his  goodness,  and  the  work  of  faith  with 
power  "  ?  "He  that  believeth  not,  shall  be  damned."  "  He  that 
believeth  on  the  Son,  hath  everlasting  life  ;  and  he  that  believeth 
not  the  Son,  shall  not  see  life ;  but  the  wrath  of  God  abideth  on 
him." 


ICI 


